Continuum
by Anrheithwyr
Summary: Rose Weasley had many conflicting parts, but they were all the things that made her an individual.


_**Written for the Tittle Swap Competition III: using the title Continuum, the characters Rose and Hermione and prompts darkness, hidden, uprising, and pond. **_

_**Also written for the 'If You Dare Competition' by Slytherin Cat, using prompt # 468, only time will tell. **_

….

_Definition of Continuum, according to Merriam-Webster's: _

_A continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different from each other, although the extremes are quite distinct._

….

Rose was a Weasley; she had a Weasley's red hair and a Weasley's sense of adventure. She was compassionate and caring and _human_, in the sort of way that only a Weasley could be. She looked out for others, and she gave a damn about people that others would not have. Rose was a Weasley through and through, and there was no other real way of describing her other than as _another one of the Weasleys_. She did not hide behind her uncles and cousins, she was not another hidden face amongst many freckled faces; but she did not stand singularly, overshadowed as she was by her famous parents, her brave uncles and aunts. She was not just another brilliant, brave Weasley; but she was not yet an individual.

She only had to figure that out.

….

Rose Heather Weasley stood at the doorway of her uncle's house, watching as her older and younger cousins ran around, kicking up sand and water everywhere. She wore her bathing suit, a just slightly too small green thing that her mum had bought a year back and then promptly forgotten about; the Weasley-Grangers were not much for swimming. She was thirteen years old, with long, somewhat curly red hair that her cousin Roxanne had clumsily done up for her in a braid; her clear blue eyes and lightly freckled face also betrayed her identity as she looked out upon nearly identical children. There were very few exceptions between them, besides Victoire and Louis' blonde hair, Albus' black hair, James' brown hair, and Roxanne's tanned body and auburn hair. Other than that, it was red, red, _red_.

Even at thirteen, Rose wasn't so confident about being _just another Weasley_. She had made a niche of her house in Ravenclaw, but even still, she had to suffer through comparisons to family members who passed before her. She had to hear new students, or students who had yet to meet her, mention how she must be _so proud _of her family; and Rose _was _so proud of her family. It was just, some days, she didn't want to be the child of heroes. She rather wished her parents were normal, like her friend, Tasha, whose parents were Muggle florists; no one knew or even _cared _who Tasha's parents were.

"You having fun watching?" asked Hermione, Rose's mother, coming up behind her daughter. The older woman was dressed casually in jeans and a faded t-shirt, but she still seemed to give off an air of motherliness, like she just wore it around like a perfume at all times. Rose leaned in, almost instinctively towards her mother, subconsciously just wanting to be near her physically. Hermione made Rose feel safe in a way no one else did, not even her father. Rose was rather close to both her parents, but Hermione was also a _woman_; she understood Rose, understood some of the problems Rose was going through. Besides, Rose's mum seemed a lot better at handling awkward emotions, and emotions in general.

"It's boring out there," Rose grumbled, waving a hand vaguely towards where Hugo and Lily seemed to be doing a sort of tribal dance around a large pile of sand. "I don't like swimming and I don't like how the sand always clings to me when I come back. Besides, they're all acting really childish." She gave her mother an offended sniff, but ruined it by smiling slightly, the corners of her mouth curling ever so slightly upwards. "I just don't like the beach, Mum." She mumbled quietly, and Hermione had to lean in to hear her. "It's scary and it has just so much darkness. I like the pond in our backyard a lot more, really." The two of them watched one redhead fall to the ground, and Hermione sat thoughtfully.

"Why don't I like the water, Mum? I don't really understand it. I mean, I like swimming and so does everyone else in the family….but the ocean scares me. Why doesn't it scare _them_, like it does me?" She nodded towards her cousins, who laughed and splashed playfully in the water, seemingly unconcerned. "I just…it makes me feel _awkward _and _upset _when they all just take off, and I'm left here, scared like a little kid. I hate it." She turned away, brushing away tears, mumbling _stupid, stupid _to herself. "Why can't I be like the rest of the family?"

"You know, I used to be afraid of the ocean, too, Rose." Hermione said, hugging her daughter in a comforting way. "Terrified, really. My parents would go on holiday and I'd have to sit in the rental car until it was time to go; my dad was never too fond of water, either. You might be a Weasley, Rose, but you're also a Granger, and Grangers don't much care for the ocean. It's just one of those facts of life." Rose frowned as she processed this, and Hermione took the opportunity to say something more. "I know you feel like you've been grouped into this clump of _Weasleys_, just because everyone sees you that way, but you're not just a Weasley, just like how you're not just a Granger. You are made up of many parts, and all those parts make you the person you are; not what other people say. That should _never _define you."

"Do you think I'll ever stop being afraid of the ocean, Mum? Do you think I'll ever be fine swimming and playing around like the rest of them? I know I ought to embrace that thing that makes me different….but, I'd rather my 'difference' be something cool, and not some embarrassing phobia of stupid water." Rose looked up at her mother, who laughed, and nodded encouragingly. She picked Rose up, suddenly, ignoring the younger girl's shrieks, and carried her out to the ocean, where her cousins seemed to be having some sort of uprising, screaming and splashing as if in a battle.

"Only time will tell who you truly are, Rosie. Only time will tell what makes you different from everyone else in this world," Hermione said, as she waded into the water with her daughter. "However, if you want to get rid of this fear of yours, you're going to have to _swim_." And she dunked Rose underneath the water, and Rose shrieked, taking in a deep breath, as she watched body parts all around her, moving and shifting the water violently. Rose Heather Weasley had many parts to her; many conflicting parts that made her unique from her cousins, even if no one else could quite see that yet.


End file.
